Operations

Automakers Surpass Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards Again

For the second year in a row, light-duty vehicle manufacturers have surpassed national greenhouse gas emissions standards, according to a March 26 report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The report found that overall industry compliance in the 2013 model year was 1.4 miles per gallon better than the required standard. In addition, nine of the 13 manufacturers with sales greater than 100,000 vehicles beat their individual 2013 standard. The automakers who met the standard included Toyota, Subaru, BMW, Nissan, Honda, Mazda, Volkswagen, Hyundai, and Kia.

The 2013-MY vehicles achieved an all-time record average of 24.1 mpg – a 0.5 mpg increase over the previous year and an increase of nearly 5 mpg since 2004.

The EPA's greenhouse gas emissions standards cover light-duty vehicles from model year 2012 to 2025. The standards are projected to save 12 billion barrels of oil and cut six billion metric tons of greenhouse gases over the lifetimes of vehicles sold between 2012 through 2025. Consumers who purchase a 2025-MY vehicle should save more than $8,000 in fuel costs over that vehicle's lifetime.

Starting with 2012-MY vehicles, the rules together require automakers to improve fuel economy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately five percent every year across each automaker's model range. The EPA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration established fuel economy standards that strengthen each year reaching an estimated 34.1 mpg for the combined industry-wide fleet for model year 2016.

A move by the White House to roll back automobile fuel-efficiency targets set by the Obama administration and to challenge the right of California and other states to set stricter tailpipe emission rules faces an uphill climb.

After a court challenge stymied its efforts to give makers of glider kits a reprieve from challenged provisions of its greenhouse gas regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency has withdrawn an order to not enforce those regulations against small manufacturers of glider kits.

A federal court has granted a temporary stay that suspends the decision by the Environmental Protection Agency to not enforce for 2018 and 2019 a 300-unit production cap put in place on the manufacture of glider kits/vehicles that do not comply with Phase 2 GHG emission rules.